This invention relates to automated systems, such as systems employing sensors and actuators, and, more particularly, to automated systems having removable system components that must be configured and their locations calibrated.
The typical automated system employing removable system components, such as an automated data storage library, requires a complicated process with operator intervention for setting up the hardware, configuring the hardware devices, and calibrating the precise locations of the hardware, so that an actuator or device that interacts with the hardware devices can interact at the correct locations.
For example, operator intervention may be required to introduce any change to the automated system, such as upon the addition, removal or exchange of any components. Once the operator defines the changes to the configuration, or defines the system as changed, some calibration may then occur automatically. However, the calibration is an extensive process in itself, so that to allow a system to re-calibrate automatically, for example, at each power on, would result in repeating the extensive process when not actually required, wasting time and reducing the efficiency and productivity of the automated system. As an example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,415 provides some calibration of the ranges of installed sensors and disables configurable features if the sensors are not present, but requires manual intervention to initiate the process.
Operator intervention is also required if a processor for the automated system is changed, for example, in a repair action, so that the operator may define the system for the new processor or so that the processor may receive the configuration information from the operator and conduct any calibration and then load the information in the memory. Further, a qualified operator may be required to intervene if the software for the processor is updated, and the system will undergo a reconfiguration and recalibration, even if the components of the system are unchanged. The requirement that a qualified operator be present limits the timing of any upgrade, and could prove to be of concern if an emergency action were required.
Electronic sensing of new electronically coupled components is known in the art, but does not indicate the mechanical location of those components. As an example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,980,078 describes a process of detecting and configuring digital devices on a network, requiring xe2x80x9csmartxe2x80x9d devices. Additionally, it is possible to determine the number of frames or the size of the automated system by testing the length of the cables employed in the system. However, many variably sized systems come with the longest possible cables, so that the system does not have to be recabled when the system size is changed. Hence, the current art requires that an operator indicate the new configuration and initiate any calibration.
Additionally, the processor may require rebooting due to various circumstances at much shorter intervals than changes are made to the removable components of the automated system. Hence, to require operator intervention to again configure an already configured system, and then to recalibrate that system would be wasteful and inefficient.
As a result, even in a reboot or upgrade action to the processor, or in a repair or replacement of the processor, or of a single removable component, the operator must be available and have knowledge of the system in order to properly characterize the system configuration and to initiate any calibration, reducing the efficiency of the operator, and substantially reducing the availability and efficiency of the automated system, especially in the absence of a qualified operator.
It is an object of the present invention to prevent configuration of an already properly configured and calibrated system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide self-configuring and self-calibration capability to an automated system without requiring the intervention of an operator to provide configuration information.
Disclosed are a self-configuring and self-calibrating automated system and method, the automated system having removable system components. The automated system first determines whether configuration data is available, for example, in a non-volatile memory of a processor. If the configuration data is available, the processor reads a system identifier of the configuration data, the automated system senses a system identifier of the automated system, which may be mounted on a frame of the automated system, the processor compares the read and the sensed system identifiers, and, if the compared system identifiers match, ends the self-configuration. If, however, the configuration data is not available, or the system identifier comparison step fails, the automated system senses the removable system components, configuring the system.
The movable sensor may move on a rail that extends from one frame into any additional frame. The automated system may move the movable sensor to a maximum available distance along the rail and into any additional frame, for example, until encountering a stop. The system processor, in conducting the self-configuration, determines the maximum available distance along the rail, and determines the number of frames from the maximum available distance.
The removable system components are located at expected locations of the automated system, and have calibration marks. The automated system comprises at least one movable sensor, and the automated system moves the movable sensor to sense the presence or absence of each of the removable system components at substantially the expected location of the removable system component. Subsequently, the automated system operates a movable sensor to calibrate at least one relative position of the movable sensor with respect to the calibration mark.
For a fuller understanding of the present invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.